Illustrated recipe – Throwback thursday

This is an older post from way back in 2013. But-! I’ve included some more details. This was a great project for me. I had a lot of fun with it!

Ellen from in my Red Kitchen and I have a little history. We both started the same study back in 2003 and were in the same class. Ellen has now moved to the other side of the world. She’s all the way in LA! But I’m glad I can still keep in touch through the ‘magic’ of the internet. Ellen has an amazing food blog, both in Dutch and English!.

In secret we decided to combine our common love of food to celebrate the 1st year anniversary of her blog. This meant that she wrote a recipe and I made the illustration. The result of our efforts can be found below. A Zucchini cake with coconut cream:

Before we started this project, Ellen made photo’s of all the tools and ingredients she used. A virtual mise en place for me. Every step was clearly documented so it would be easier for me to illustrate the full recipe.

After I knew what I was going to draw I needed to figure out what style I wanted it to be in. I fiddled a lot with it. This was one of my first (bad) design attempts. I’m really glad I went for something a lot more bright and playful than this:

I wanted the design to echo a California diner feel. Bright and sunny. Complimenting the illustrations. I think I succeeded in that with the final design. Check out the entire (long and detailed :) illustrated recipe below. Also check out the recipe on Ellen’s website In my Red Kitchen. Enjoy and don’t forget to check out the other great recipes she has!